Archive for May, 2008

Ripe is supposedly the culmination of 3 years of song-writing from the radio-rock loving, Claire Danes-dating, earnest self-indulgent album cover photo-taking, one-time musical boy genius Aussie Ben Lee. The 12 tracks here were apparently whittled down from over 80. 80? 80 of these bloody insipid tracks existed at one point?!

Directed by Nelson McCornick The reaction that I had to this movie was rather like the reaction I have to most movies of this type: If this movie were a comedy I would have loved it. Sadly, laughter doesn’t seem to be the reaction that the director of a slasher-horror is going for. So my […]

Benjamin Matthewson is doing his PhD thesis on the formation of calcium carbonate in kina shells. When calcium carbonate is formed in the lab, it forms a rhomboid, but when formed in the presence of a mixture of glycoproteins (macromolecules with both protein and sugar parts) found in shellfish, it forms intricate patterns of microscopic […]

On 16 May, Finance Minister Michael Cullen declared that lower interest rates would be of greater help to families than tax cuts. This column was going to be called “No, Dr Cullen, you’re wrong”. I stand by that; tax cuts mean more cash in pocket than a slight reduction in interest rates.

Madeleine Albright Madeleine Albright is the most fucking frightening woman ever to have the nuclear launch codes, which she stole while then-President Clinton was ‘preoccupied’. Her weapon of choice is the flamethrower. She speaks six different languages and is said to have threatened to extricate Ariel Sharon’s balls from his sack using a hunting knife […]

New Fiction Mo Zhi Hong, The Year of the Shanghai Shark (Auckland, Penguin, 2008) Hai Long is an orphaned pickpocket, living with his uncle on the money provided by rich foreigners’ wallets in the North-Eastern Chinese city of Dalian during 2003 – the year of SARS and the invasion of Iraq.

Once upon a time late on a Wednesday afternoon, a girl (me) decided to park her car at the Stadium car park and not pay. Her naughtiness received its just desserts for the parking warden fairy left her a loving gift – a $45.00 ticket. Even with the bountiful supply of parks at that hour, […]

The student magazine of Victoria University of Wellington. Salient is available on campus free each Monday during term. Funded in part by Victoria University of Wellington students, through the Student Services Levy.